


Hey Brother, Do You Still Believe In One Another?

by RedHoodie1723



Series: Batfam Week 2020 [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Batkids Age Reversal, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Damian Wayne is Nightwing, Dick Grayson is Robin, F/M, Gen, Identity Reveal, Jason Todd is Red X, Stephanie Brown is Spoiler, Tim Drake is Red Robin, dont worry he will be a good batdad like he was before i wrote this, hes grieving, well he gets better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23144080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedHoodie1723/pseuds/RedHoodie1723
Summary: Day Four of Batfam Week 2020: Reverse Batfam AUA continuation of Robin Reversal. Dick's brother died two years ago. There's wasn't even a body, just blood and torn parts of his Robin costume. Now not only does Dick have to deal with his family falling apart, but he also has to find and stop Red X, a thief plaguing the Teen Titans.(I will not be updating this fic, as I am planning to rewrite)
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Koriand'r & Garfield Logan & Raven & Victor Stone, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake (Mentioned), Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Series: Batfam Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1659202
Comments: 22
Kudos: 140
Collections: Tales from the Cave





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as a stand-alone, but I suggest you go back and read Robin Reversal, as things will make more sense.
> 
> Enjoy!

The funeral was small. His father, Timothy, Richard, and Pennyworth were there. Kyle Rayner had shown up, bringing along Rose Wilson and Eddie Bloomberg. Jason’s godmother, Diana Prince, appeared to say a few words.

Damian wasn’t able to say a thing. He couldn’t speak or process what was going on around him. Richard had pressed himself tightly to his side, Timothy had even leaned his head into the crook of Damian’s shoulder at one point.

Jason was 16 when he died. 16 when his mother betrayed him and sold him out to the Joker. 16 when Damian had to bury his little brother. He was 16 when they had to bury an empty casket because all the Joker had left of his brother was a puddle of blood too big for Jason to have survived.

They had never been about to see Hamlet together like Jason had asked, or worked on a mission with Jon. There was so much Jason hadn’t been able to do. He was going to go to college, get a degree in English. Now he was six feet under.

Damian wondered if he could’ve done anything to save him, a question he was sure plagued his father and brother’s minds.

But that didn’t matter, because, at the end of the day, there was nothing they could do now that he was already dead. Jason was dead. His brother was gone. And there was nothing he could do.

\-----

Two years after Jason’s death, Dick had joined the Teen Titans. He was 14 now and was co-leading the team with Starfire.

Dick loved the Titans, they were his second family. He knew he could rely on them and they could rely on him. Together, they were unbeatable. At least he thought they were.

He called himself Red X. He was a thief and had evaded the Titans every time they crashed. Dick felt inadequate.

Jason has fought and died as Robin. He was Dick’s brother and hero. Jason was the strongest person he knows... knew. Dick felt like he was failing him, unable to catch a selfish thief. The name Robin meant something to Jason, it means something to Dick, and now he was tarnishing it.

He didn’t voice his doubts to the other Titans, nor to his family. 

Tim moved to New York with his girlfriend, Stephanie, the first Batgirl who now goes by Spoiler. He had thrown himself into cases after case and Dick couldn’t bear to see him work himself to death. Steph already had a hard enough time dragging Tim back from the edge after Jason, he didn’t need to bring up old memories.

A month after the funeral, Damian killed the Joker with the same crowbar Joker used to kill Jason. Bruce was angry he had broken the number one rule, and in anger and grief, he got into an argument with him. Damian punched him in the face before leaving for Europe. He’s worked there since, but Dick noticed his tracker would travel to Ethiopia periodically. 

Damian never accepted Jason’s death, not until they found a body. He cut off communication with everyone, even Dick, to which he tried to convince him not to, but he was focused on his mission. Pushing away everything else, Damian threw himself into the search, but two years of looking and Damian’s found nothing. All he’s managed to do was lose his family.

Bruce was the worst. After Jason’s death, he became cold and distant. He was once a warm father, the man Dick idolized and looked up to for comfort and guidance, now he locks himself in the cave and works all day. It became suffocating, one minute Bruce would throw himself into his work and not speak to them days on end, the next he would refuse to let them out of his sight. So Dick left, Tim left, Damian left. He wondered if his family could ever be fixed.

But he had to focus on fixing his current problem before he tried to fix the problem with his family.

Red X was like a ghost, popping up to steal something, then disappearing for weeks. And they could never predict what he would try and take. It seemed random, the only similarity was that it was always expensive. The only thing he had taken more than once were supplies of Xenothium. Without a reliable way to determine where he would strike next, they could never act, only react.

The alarm had sounded at the San Francisco branch of S.T.A.R. Labs. Witness reports described a masked thief dressed in red and black. Red X.

Bringing the Redbird to a stop, Dick jumped off the motorcycle. He shot a grapple to the roof where witnesses said he entered the building. Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven floated down to join him, Beast Boy staying in his Eagle form to keep watch.

Entering the already open vent, Dick slides down the metal passage before ending at another grate. Kicking it open, he landed on the floor below. Red X stood in front of him, holding a USB drive.

Robin dived for the drive. He didn’t know what was on there, but if it came from S.T.A.R. Labs, it was probably nothing good.

Red X flipped back, his foot hitting Robin’s chin as it arched over X’s head. Stumbling back a few steps, Robin saw Starfire fire three bolts at the thief, tow of which he dodged. The last bolt hit him in the chest, causing him to lose his balance. Raven was behind him, ready to take advantage of his unsteadiness, but Red hit the teleporter on his belt.

He appeared again behind Cyborg, looping his legs around Victor’s neck before turning his body and flipping Cyborg to the ground. Red hit the floor in a roll.

“Where’s Mike Wazowski? Wouldn’t be a true reunion without him,” Red X quipped. It took Dick a split second to realize he was looking for something. The drive. It wasn’t in X’s hand anymore, he must’ve dropped it when Starfire hit him.

Robin spotted the drive laying next to Rachel.

“Raven!” He shouted. She snatched up the drive as Red X jumped in the same direction. The thief growled.

“I need that,” His voice was low and dangerous.

“What do you want so badly that’s on that drive?” Robin asked as he threw a few birdarangs at Red X. He leaned to the side to avoid them, running right into Cyborg's punch. Red hit the ground with a smack, groaning as he rolled to the side. He let out a deep cough.

“You don’t understand. Now give me the drive,” Red snarled. However, he wasn’t exactly in a position to negotiate. On the ground, Cyborgs blasters trained on him, Raven and Starfire ready to jump in at any moment, Robin’s boot in his chest holding him down, and Beast Boy outside in case he tried to teleport away. But he knew Red X, he had gotten away from them every time, and he will try to do that here.

The minute he gets his hand on that drive, he’ll teleport away. Robin slides the drive in his utility belt before lifting his boot to step on the teleporter attached to his belt. The crack of the device breaking signaled to Red X that there wasn’t a way out of this one.

Red X didn’t seem to get the memo. He hit Cyborg’s arm away with hi right land, grabbing Dick’s leg with his left. He yanked Dick’s legs out from under him, causing him to fall before Red X high kicked Cyborg in the face. Starfire grabbed Red X from behind, but he used one of his X’s to stab her side. It didn’t pierce her tough skin, but it hurt enough to make her let him go.

He evaded Raven’s magic, throwing a sticky X and pinning her to the large computer monitor. Cyborg grabbed his cape, swinging Red X into Starfire.

Dick turned away from the fight for a second to pull out the USB. Red X was skilled, fast, he had highly advanced tech (which was his fault), and at some moments it seemed like he knew everything about them. Red X didn’t win fights, but the Titans always lost, because, in the end, his goal wasn’t to beat them, just getaway. He would continue fighting up until he accomplished his goal, which was retrieving whatever was on the drive.

Plugging it into the mini-computer in his gauntlets, Dick opened the file on the drive. It was a blood test, Red X’s blood test. He got cut by a birdarang last time they encountered each other. Dick had sent the blood to S.T.A.R. Labs to be tested, as the Titans Tower doesn’t have a machine to do that. It looked like the test were complete, they had a matching identity.

As Dick was about to tap on the result, X came flying at him. His foot hitting him across the face. The file automatically closed. At least now they knew what he wanted.

“Is this what you came for? Why do you care so much if we know who you are?” Dick asked, catching X’s punch and kneeing him in the ribs. X doubled over, which gave Dick a moment to see his teammates either unconscious or trapped beneath more sticky X’s.

Red recovered a second later, bending down to swing his leg at Dick’s own. He fell but moved into a roll. Taking the taser out of his belt, he shot it at X. Red X barely dodged it.

“Because you- you can’t,” Red X sputtered. Normally quips would be traded back a forth when they clashed, Red always had something to say. Now he seemed nervous, even scared. Most villains have public identities anyway, what does he need to protect?

X managed to get close enough to remove the drive from his glove, but the files had already downloaded, and it seemed like X just realized that. Pocketing the drive, he took off for the window. Dick gave chase, grabbing his cape before he could fully get out the window.

They grappled for a minute until Red was able to shove himself away from Robin. He set off a smoke bomb and dived out the window before Dick could even get his bearings. He heard Beast Boy cry from outside before a falcon fell from the sky. Launching himself forward, Dick caught the green bird before launching a line to the closest building. 

Setting Garfield down carefully, Dick tried to find the pulse point on the bird. Thankfully Garfield shifted back to his human form in his sleep. Dick was able to locate a pulse and figured Gar was just knocked out.

Dick groaned, leaning against the wall. This was not how the night was supposed to go. The only good thing they got out of tonight was the files.

Dick opened the files up again, only to wish he hadn’t, because the face looking back at him, was the face of his older brother. Jason Todd was the Red X.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part Two! Let me know in the comments whether you want a continuation, and if so, with Damian, Tim, or Bruce (or all three).
> 
> Enjoy!! <3

Dick wouldn't stop, couldn't stop until he found Jason. After finding out that Red X and Jason Todd were one and the same, Dick hadn't slept. Jason was his older brother. He looked up to him, admired him, and now... he couldn't recognize him. Jason was always the first one to run into the line of danger if he thought he could help someone. He was the one who fought most passionately and loved most freely. This thief, who stole and hurt others for his own gain, wasn't Jason. Yet, the DNA test proves otherwise. 

Dick was in the dark. Why? How? When? He had so many questions but had answers for none of them. The 14-year-old had put in days to search for X, but he seemed to have disappeared into the woodwork. Kori and the others had tried to convince him to take a break to rest and eat, but he couldn't sleep while his brother was still out there. Dick had run every test imaginable on the Titans computer system, to no avail. Dick wasn't surprised, Jason was trained by Batman himself, he could spend years completely off-grid if needs be. 

He could call Bruce, or Tim, or Damian, but he didn't. He knew he was the one who had to help Jason. The others were his family, and he loved them more than anything, but they were... emotionally unavailable. And that was putting it nicely. They all suffered after Jason's death. Bruce had pushed everyone out of his life, Tim threw himself into his work, Damian went off the deep end, breaking the one rule they weren't supposed to break, ever. Dick had grieved Jason, he misses him every day, but he knew Jason would want them to be happy, so he tried to move on with the Titans. Now... he didn't know what Jason wanted. 

The most recent search Dick ran on the computer had come back negative. Jason hadn’t been spotted by traffic cameras, social media posts, or public security cameras. When the Red X suit was first stolen, all the trackers had been removed, so that was a dead end. Red X had no known hideout or base or any known associates. For all Dick knew, Jason had left San Fransisco days ago. Red X had no pattern before they knew his identity, and he still doesn’t now that they know it’s Jason. 

They don’t even have a clear motive. Previously, Red X claimed that he was just ‘looking out for number one’, but their adoptive father was literally a billionaire. Jason was never a selfish person in the first place, but even if that’s changed, all he had to do is go home and he’ll be set for life. So now Dick has to figure out why Jason is doing this and why he doesn’t just come home. Jason’s return could be the key to restoring the family to how they used to be. They all loved Jason, and Dick was sure he loved them. So... why? 

Dick sighed, slumping against the computer. This was going nowhere. The door opened behind him. “Hey,” a soft voice rang out from behind him. Dick turned the swivel chair around. Raven was standing there, dressed in black, as usual. Concern was clear on her face, which threw Dick off a bit, as she is normally one to be subtle about her feelings. 

“You looked awful,” She said. Dick grinned, the smile was fake and Rachel knew that. 

“Thanks, it’s the anxiety,” He quipped. She gave him a look that told him she wasn’t going to put up with his nonsense. 

Dick sighed, dropping the smile. “I’m scared, and confused,” He confessed. Raven pulled another chair up to sit in front of him. “Jason, he’s my older brother. He was my hero. He’s not some petty thief. I just... can’t connect the two.” Dick huffed, crossing his arms.

“He was supposed to be dead, there was no way he could have survived. With the amount of blood left at the scene, he wouldn’t have made it. And yet, he’s here. He’s alive and it’s simultaneously a miracle and my worst nightmare.”

"Yeah, I know a little something about nightmares," Raven scoffed. "Another thing I know is that working yourself to death isn't going to help Jason. Take a break, Dick."

Dick averted his gaze. He knew she was right, but he didn't think he could sleep while Jason was still out there.

"I'm going to go take a walk," He said. He knew that wasn't what Raven had in mind, but it was a compromise.

Dick stood up, Raven not far behind him. She put a hand on his shoulder. "You know we are here for you, right? We're Titans, we're a family, and we will always have your back," She said. Dick gave her a small smile, it was genuine.

"Thanks, Rae."

\-----

Jason knew he should stay inside. He had managed to avoid detection for the past few days, but going out like this was just asking for trouble.

He didn't want to talk to Dick, because Jason knew he might start doubting his convictions if he did.

When Jason escaped the Joker's capture, it was Talia who saved him, who gave him the necessary blood transfusions and nursed him back to health. Not Bruce, not Damian, not Tim or Dick or anyone else. They left him behind, left him to suffer for days at the Joker's hand. He was dying and where were they?

Talia gave him the resources he needed to steal the Red X suit. She helped him, comforted him when he couldn't sleep and was there for him when he needed it. She never gave up on him. When Jason found out that Bruce hadn't even bothered looking for him, just assumed he was dead, Jason was livid. His 'family' gave up on him.

When Jason first stole the Red X suit, he was planning on using it to kill them. Dick, Tim, Damian, and Bruce. Show them the mistake they made when they forgot about him. Jason messed up by going after Dick first. His baby brother, he was just 14. Jason saw him once before officially scrapping his plans. He was too weak, too sentimental to pull the trigger.

As strong as the part of him that just wanted to go home and curl back up into Bruce's arms, the part of him that hated them with every atom in his body was stronger. So Jason bid his time, took up the persona of a selfish thief. It was a compromise between the two warring parts of him.

Dick finding out his identity wasn't part of that plan.

Jason got tired of spending time in the safe house Talia had given him. There wasn't anything to do except watch old reruns of shows. He was starting to feel cooped up and suffocated. Apparently, he was also feeling nostalgic because his walk ended at the same arcade he and Dick spent hours in when they were on the same Titans team.

Jason sat on the roof, looking at the sun setting in the East. He was there for a while, just basking in the red-orange glow when a noise came from the fire escape. He whipped his head to the side, coming face to face with Dick Grayson. Dick looked just as surprised as Jason, leading the 18-year-old to believe this was a coincidence.

Jason jumped to his feet and backed away slowly from Dick.

"Jason..." Dick's voice was soft. He paused at his name, Jason's brief hesitation allowing him to get a better look at Dick. He was in civies, like Jason. Just some jeans and a hoodie, although he had lost his usual sunglasses. The lack of sunglasses allowed Jason to see the deep bags under his eyes. Dick looked exhausted, but still elated at the sight of Jason.

Dick started forward. Jason stumbled backward, but it was to no avail. Dick had already locked his arms around Jason, capturing him in a hug. Jason froze, not knowing how to react to the sudden show of affection. Dick had grown in Jason's absence. Despite Jason's 5'11" frame, Dick was still tall enough to comfortably tuck his head into the crook of Jason's neck.

Jason broke out of his trance, shoving Dick off of him. The smile on Dick's face faltered. 

"No, you don't get to do that. Not after what you did," Jason snarled. 

"What I did? Jason, what are you talking about?" Dick looked lost, but Jason wasn't buying it.

"You know exactly what you did. You forgot about me, gave up on me."

"Forgot about you? Jason, I mourned you! You died!" Dick stepped forward. He looked like he was either about to cry or punch Jason.

"No, no I didn't. That's just what you told yourself to feel better! You and the rest of the Bats left me to suffer at that madman's hands. You never looked for me, never cared. All those years ago, I was right. You never cared about me, I was just a charity case, something to pity. Right? Because if you really cared, you would've looked for me. You would've tried, but you didn't, did you?" Jason shouted in Dick's face, stabbing his finger into his chest with every sentence. He felt his eyes start to water. He wanted Dick to suffer, to let him drown in guilt, but he also wanted a fight, to let Dick yell back. He wanted Dick to prove him wrong, he wanted proof his family still loved him.

"Jason, you are my older brother, you are not a charity case. I love you, as do the others. They were devastated after your death! Damian killed the Joker for god's sake! What more proof do you want?!" Dick yelled, grabbing Jason's arms. Jason felt a tear slip down his face.

"If you loved me, why didn't you look for me?" His voice was quiet but strong. Dick hesitated.

"There- there was too much blood Jason. There was no way you would've survived long enough without help," Dick said as if he believed that flimsy excuse.

"Yeah, well I had help. Funny how it wasn't you," Jason's voice was cold, his resolve hardening.

"Jason... I don't know what you want here."

Jason opened his mouth, ready to yell, scream, whatever at Dick, but he paused. What did he want? He wanted to feel angry, to hate Dick and the others for forgetting him. But Dick was standing here now, insisting he loves him, that the rest of his family still loves him. Jason's hesitation was long enough for Dick to take advantage of.

"Jason, I don't know your goal here, why you're doing this, but I do know what mine is. Jason, I want you to come home. I want everyone to come home. I missed you, so, so, so much. We all did. Jason, please come home," Dick's voice cracked as he talked, tears flowing freely down his face. Jason noticed that he was crying as well.

Jason took a step forward, before collapsing to his knees. Dick joined him not even a second later. He wrapped his arms around the older boy, Jason returning the gesture. Jason tucked his chin on top of Dick's head, burying his face into Dick's wavy, raven hair. After four years, he forgot how comforting Dick's hugs were. He could feel his shirt getting wet where Dick was crying.

"Ok, Dickie. Bring me home," Jason whispered into Dick's hair. Jason was lost, he thought he wanted one thing, to see the people he loved hurt. But now, sitting here, Dick was right. He wanted to go home. He wanted to listen to Tim go on one of his nerdy Star Trek rants and help Damian take care of his pets. He wanted to go to another Gotham Knights game with Bruce and playing video games with Dick. He wanted his family, and maybe, they would want him too.


End file.
